Drive and enthusiasm

IT was a sight that would have brought a smile to the face of leading British businessman Sir Alan Sugar.

Ninety-six Year 10 pupils from across Sefton gathered at Greenbank High in Birkdale last Wednesday for the borough’s first inter-schools entrepreneurship contest, ‘Tomorrow’s Managers Today’.

Sixteen teams of six schoolmates apiece each took the role of a motor manufacturing firm, seeking to accumulate the biggest profit over the day by capturing the van market with an inspired design and marketing campaign.

The vehicles themselves may have only been paper and glue, but the cut and thrust of real business practice were simulated as the students negotiated with traderships, analysed material prices, bought advertising time and dealt with computer crashes, faulty parts and Government policy changes.

The victorious team came from Range High in Formby and the other schools participating were: Greenbank, Bootle High, St Wilfrid's Catholic High (Litherland), Maghull High, Maricourt Roman Catholic High, Holy Family Catholic High (Thornton), and Formby High.

Representatives from 10 local and national organisations – including Merseytravel, Royal Navy and the Ariel Trust – took on the roles of company consultants or the traderships buying the vans, and they were on hand to feed back to the students about their performance.

The event was organised by Sefton Education Business Partnership (EBP), a company limited by guarantee that since 1998 has worked with Sefton Council and Chamber of Commerce to promote commercial, financial and management skills to secondary and special school pupils, through work experience, mock interviews and special exercises.

Speaking to Business Week, Gill Ditchburn, partnership manager for Sefton EBP, said: “The event gives a better understanding of how businesses may be run.

“The students have to research the vans before they produce and market them, but they will still make mistakes.

“The modern economy is constantly changing and today’s students will need to be adaptable as well as have specific skills such as financial literacy.”

“The Government have just announced another three years’ funding for enterprise education, at £60million per year nationally.”

Ian Raikes, assistant headteacher at Greenbank High, added: “It’s a pleasure to see the pupils working so enthusiastically and in a spirit of competition, and it’s a wonderful example of how schools can develop the educational opportunities which Sefton EBP provide.”

When the Visiter spoke to one team from Greenbank mid-way through the exercise, they were confident their company, Drive Away Today, would find success with its wheelchair-adapted vans.

“The exercise is useful because it makes you deal with pressures. You find out how a business works to deadlines,” said Kate from the team.